Teacher's Pet

Xander, and most of the male population of Sunnydale High, are falling all over themselves trying to impress the new substitute Biology teacher, Ms. French. When Buffy sees this femme fatale scare off a particularly nasty vampire, however, she begins to suspect that Xander may be in serious trouble.

Quotes (36)

Natalie: The praying mantis is a fascinating creature. Forced to live alone. Who can tell me why? Buffy?
Buffy: Well, the words "bug ugly" kinda spring to mind.

Xander: You two are probably a little young to understand what an older woman would see in a younger man.
Buffy: Oh, I understand.
Xander: Good!
Buffy: The younger man is too dumb to wonder why an older woman can't find someone her own age, and too desperate to care about the surgical improvements!

Notes (4)

Featured Music:
Already Met You by Super Fine - At the Bronze when Xander is snubbed
Stoner Love by Super Fine - At the Bronze at the end of the episode

Angel gives Buffy his leather jacket in this episode, which she wears often through at least the next two seasons.

This episode begins Xander's unconscious and continuing attraction to women who are either evil or demonic.

Cordelia has just two scenes in this episode. In the original script she had another one, but it was cut for length. The scene had her approaching Buffy and Willow at the Bronze and dissing them for sitting at her favorite table.

Trivia (5)

We learn in this episode that Xander is still a virgin.

This is the only time Xander's middle name, LaVelle, is mentioned.

Goofs: When Ms. French is making her bug sandwich, she dumps the bugs onto the bread and a few scamper onto the plate. But when she picks up the sandwich to eat, there are no bugs on the plate. Also, look at Ms. French's sleeves when she's eating her bug sandwich. Depending on the angle (hands only or face and hands), the sleeves are either rolled up or down.

Goof: After slashing the mantis with a machete, Buffy wipes the blade on her pants. Oddly, it leaves no mark or stain on her pants, even though she had just used it to chop the bug into pieces.

Nitpick: It's odd that several days after his death, Dr. Gregory's broken glasses would still be on his desk. Surely, the police would have collected them for evidence.

Allusions (7)

Xander: I'm exempting shwarma, of course. I mean, what's that all about? It's a big meat hive.
Shwarma is a meat dish of Middle Eastern origin, made with beef, chicken, or lamb, and sometimes served in a pita (variations may depend on region or personal taste).

Xander: Oh this is fun. We're on Monster Island.
"Monster Island" was the name of an island in the South Pacific which was home to Godzilla and a number of other gigantic beasts in several Tokyo produced monster movies.
Monster Island is also the name of a Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel crossover novel.

Buffy: No, I'm not saying she craned her neck, we are talking full-on Exorcist twist. Buffy compares the teacher's ability to rotate her head around completely on her neck to the famous scene in the classic 1973 horror movie The Exorcist, where the possessed girl (played by Linda Blair) turns her head around a full 360 degrees.

Blayne: Flag down on that play, babe.
An allusion to American football where the officials call a penalty by throwing a flag. It's common to hear an announcer say "there's a flag down on the play" to indicate that a penalty will be called. Here Blayne is trying to deflect the information that he's a virgin.

Blayne: I think it's eenie, meenie, miney...
Eeny, meeny, miney, moe is one of the many childhood methods of choosing among various people. The nonsense phrases come in various varieties with various lengths, but the basic idea is that you point to a different person for each word and the person pointed to on the last word is chosen.